“No more running, baby.”
“Kai?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. For what you’ve done. For everything.” Her fingers tightened around the edge of the sheet clutched to her chest and when her eyes met mine, I saw warmth and lightness in the depths. “I know you don’t think so, but you have good in you.”
I didn’t respond to that. I couldn’t because my throat was tight and I had no words to give her.
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know, London.” And I didn’t. Nothing was certain, but I’d do whatever it took to keep her from being hurt. If that meant her staying here for years, then that was what would happen.
I threw my leg over her, straddling her, the sheet shielding her naked body from me, but that wasn’t lasting long. “I have to leave soon, baby, and I don’t know how long I’ll be.” I lowered my voice. “You need to know that leaving here isn’t an option for you.”
Her brows rose. “Are you saying I’m a prisoner?”
I smirked. “You can take it any way you want.” I drew in closer. “But if you do, there isn’t anywhere I won’t find you again.” I tightened my thighs around her hips. “I found you in an underworld where girls are lost forever.”
“Deck found me,” she said, trying to hide her smile.
“Mmm, yes. But I allowed him to.”
Her breath hitched and her eyes widened. “You were there? Why then… why didn’t you take me with you?”
“Couldn’t do it, baby. Not then.”
“And now is what… more convenient for you?”
My lip twitched. “Yes.”
“Why?” she demanded, her brows scrunched together and her supple body tensed beneath me.
Fuck, she was perfect. I grabbed her wrists and locked them together in one hand above her head and grinned. “Wanted to finish decorating my bedroom. Took me a while.”
She huffed. I chuckled. She struggled against me, but that didn’t last long. Soon, my jeans were back on the floor and she was submitting to me, and it wasn’t because I made her.
London belonged to me because she wanted to. And that was a woman’s ultimate control.Hard Limit“BABY, YOU KNOW I love a challenge and if you decide to make a run for it,”—I stalked across the room toward her—“know that I’ve never lost one.” I didn’t. It was a fact. Losing was a word I had no experience with because I didn’t know how to give up.
Her brows lowered and her nose twitched before she tucked her hair behind her ear. I loved that she was a little uncertain of me, on her guard and yet still her blood rushed through her veins in heated anger. It was the London I’d been attempting to get back, the girl who would stand up to a killer, the girl who challenged me.
My cock strained against my jeans and I liked the discomfort.
I waited. Eager to see what she’d do—if she’d run, fight or submit. I wanted all three in that order. I smiled as I stood a few feet away from her, arms crossed, completely relaxed, at least in appearance, and yet my muscles thrummed, ready to react.
“I don’t understand you.”
“I’m not meant to be understood, merely… pleased.”
“I tried that. You didn’t like it,” she retorted and I loved that she threw attitude back at me. What I didn’t like was what it meant—time for me to return to Toronto and deal with shit. Every night for the last week I went to bed swearing I’d leave in the morning, yet every morning when I woke with her naked in my arms, I said, ‘Tomorrow.’
I laughed. “Quite right. But having a woman suck me off because she is trained to doesn’t please me. What pleases me is if she gets wet merely thinking about wrapping her lips around my cock. That, my dear, pleases me.”
“And if she doesn’t want to?”
My eyes roamed the length of her, seeing the slight jerk in her body, the tiny goose bumps on her heated skin. There was no question she wanted me. The question was whether she’d push herself. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t want to if I asked you to, right now?”
She hesitated. No doubt contemplating whether to lie to me or not. “No,” she replied. Good girl. “But why do you want to do this? Tie me up.”
I shrugged. “Push your limits. And because I think you need it.”
“I don’t like it.”
I chuckled. “I know. But you’ll do it.”
“Are you going to force me?”
“Braveheart, I don’t have to force you to do anything. You’ll willingly do it because you trust me.” I paused, grinning. “And because you’re in love with me.” Oh, she didn’t like that, but the truth blazed in the depths of her eyes. “Come here. Or run. Either way is fine with me.”
Her finger tapped on her thigh as she decided. “You’re pretty damn confident making that ridiculous assumption.” She smiled and mimicked me, crossing her arms then cocked her hip.